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Fuck off, Brethren girl I forced a s to be aching "It was great He is indeed an ihtly and sle"

So sodding what? "Maybe you should ask hihtly I was somewhat surprised that the apparently stoic and so "Oh no, I could never do that Lord Corrigan likes to do the chasing hian Which was actually probably what she wanted I tried to so now"

"Okay then," she answered drea hand in hand down a deserted beach I al around in the hall, looking over at me anxiously, so I flashed her a brilliant s up to the doret ate and places to go and it was too late to change the fact that I’d stupidly snapped at his I figured I had a couple of hours before the rest of the intervieould be over Plenty of tis and to look for black diaes and taken a few more painkillers so I was pretty sure that I’d be able to conducttohi to find out how his interview had gone - but I didn’t want to lose any valuable time and I was pretty certain that he wouldn’t take kindly tohe screwed it up, so I shifted the backpack on my shoulder instead and walked out towards the beach and the scene of John’s death

Despitethe healing process by opening the gashes up onand instead walked casually away from the keep At least if anyone spotted me I could use the excuse that I was just out for a casual afternoon stroll to clear htened by sunbeams, in stark and bitter contrast to when I’d taken this route last time A few birds chirped here and there I noted ht, as well as a few others that were heavier and no doubt belonged to the Brethren And John had said that I was like an elephant…I guess that’s what living in the cehtly and leave little trace behind of your presence

Scuffing over so trail an, eventually deciding that he was just trying to get underhu without thinking twice about it He had definitely just been fishing around He probably tried to get a rise out of everyone he interviewed I ignored the memory of the almost worshipful expression Johannes had had on his face after his interview Anyway, Corrigan didn’tJohn’s et closer to where John had died, I stopped focusing on the ground and started checking out the trees instead I couldn’t see anything yet that suggested theabout it I felt tendrils of dread curl around the pit of my stoo there again I wondered how ed to clean up Would there still be traces of his life blood there? Where it had seeped into the earth, taking the only real parent I’d ever known? I clenchedinto the palrief escape back out I needed to be strong and steely if I was going to avenge his death

I still couldn’t see anything on any of the trees I circled a few of the? By the time I reached the sandy spot where John had actually died, I felt myself flooded with frustration So I couldn’t I walked slowly up to the spot where his body had lain There were a few indentations on the grass and in the sand but the blood was gone I knelt down for a second and softly touched the ground

"I miss you, John," I whispered softly My words hipped away by the wind I blinked back a few tears and stood back up to look at the tree line behind me That hen I noticed that the trees did indeed havethe spot where he’d died, were one, two, three…seven trees together that had what looked like runes scoured into their bark I felt so for and strode over to the first one

It was gouged deep into the flesh of the tree Liftingto work out what it was These weren’t Fae runes: there was so sharper and much more sinister about theht I pulled out my smartphone and snapped a photo of it I still hadn’tup information on wichtleins Now I had another reason toa photo of each rune as I went That there were seven runes on seven trees definitely ical number that contained a lot of poithin it

I et a picture of all of the the top of the sand with my injuries but I tensed my muscles and held ain when soht my eye I crouched down and brushed away the sand It was a ring of seven charred coals All of a sudden several pieces started to click together and I hit the back of ainst my forehead in exasperation Of course I cursedan idiot Black diamond stones could easily refer to coal, and Nick hadof coals from Perkins And an electric screwdriver I wondered for a minute whether the tree runes could have beenthat was ridiculous

But at least now I knehere I had to go to next

Chapter Nine